Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx A New Kind of Man

Mine arrived this morning! Not had a chance to play it yet though...

Got mine in the post yesterday, which is pretty amazing considering I live in Chicago! Only had the chance to listen to it once and thought the sound quality was quite good, but I'm baffled by what sounded like a mockney accent sneaking in here and there. A very nice document of a tour I would have liked to attend, and a nice package as well. But I'm ready for some new material . . . and some new artwork. Enough with the recycling, even if it is Earth Day!

My copy of 'A New Kind Of Man' arrived yesterday, I've only played it once so far and I need a closer listen before I can start to form a firm opinion of it. The sound is pretty good, but my first impression is that as a concert it lacks the energy of 'Retro Future'. This is partly because the songs in the Exotour era were given more dynamic and danceable (though not necessarily better) reworkings and arrangements. But, also, whereas you are continually aware of the crowd on 'Retro Future', and their glee and surprise as they recognize the opening bars of their favourite songs, on 'A New Kind Of Man', it almost seems as if John, Louis and Steve are making another 'Live In A Room' album, with the crowd only obvious between songs. And the fact that it is the whole of Metamatic in album running order exacerbates the sense of sterility from a live perspective. Too much crowd noise can conceal and distract, but a certain buzz seems to be missing here. I don't think that that's anything to do with the audience, because as someone who attended both the 'Retro Future' Shrewsbury gig and the Birmingham Metamatic tour show, I can recall that there was a significantly bigger and probably noisier crowd at the latter.

I would also say the cover is disappointing. As much as I like the Quiet Man character and images it seems tired and inappropriate to recycle the cover of 'Miles Away' when the album is called 'A New Kind Of Man' and 'Miles Away' isn't even included. As the concert was entirely retro, the cover should have reflected that to an extent, but perhaps The Quiet Man should have visited Primark.

This said, besides one or two tracks that I don't think were pulled off live - especially Blurred Girl - this is still an enjoyable alternative with some interesting and successful deviations from the original studio album and I by no means regret buying it. And as I said to begin with, I need to play the cd some more as I had a few distractions on first spin. So I may end up dismissing some misgivings.

To be honest I'm a little disappointed in this release. I find it lacks the live feel and energy of Retro Future. The sound is flat and plasticy, lacking depth.

John sounds tired on many tracks, leaving some tracks without the edge his vocals usually bring. It's interesting to hear how his voice has changed since these songs were originally recorded.

There are some lovely moments during the intros and endings of songs, but then a lot of the music sounds like its coming straight off CD (particularly Burning Car and 21st Century), with little improvisation or variation. That said, I really like John's solo at the end of Metal Beat.

John finally comes to life for A New Kind of Man, which has the sound and feel I'd been hoping for. Really like that one! Tidal Wave also works remarkably well live, which surprised me, as its a track I'm not usually bothered about at all. The difficult 030 also works well and so does My Face - it's great to hear a live version of this track, and definitely a highlight of the album for me.

I have no bias towards this release since I was not at any of the shows (unfortunately), but I've never thought of Metamatic as a live album, and somehow something doesn't quite work for me I'm sad to say.

I think it's nice to finally have the empty suit as an album cover. There are some fantastic images in the booklet - so appropriate for the music. These are true grey suit/metamatic style images, true to the nature of the songs on Metamatic, and the variety of the imagery can somehow represent touring too, visiting different cities - just brief snapshots of places.

My favourite image of John's is the one of the suited figure walking across the urban square - I would still like to see this used as an album cover, rather than the tiny thumbnail in the booklet - it just doesn't do it justice. But that said, it's good to finally have it out there on something!

double post - sorry!

I got my copy of 'A NEW KIND OF MAN' yesterday.

It does seem a *little* bit of a 'moneyspinner' to me, what with us already having had a 2CD remastered-for-a-second-time deluxe Metamatic, and also the MetalBeat interview album about it... and I agree with comments above about the recycling of old cover art seeming a little tired...nonetheless I suppose it is nice to document the tour.

I went to two of the shows on this tour (ICA, and Brighton). As such it's interesting to compare my memories of what the gigs really sounded like, to this "live" album.
To be honest, the album sounds a little sanitized in comparison. Basically it seems more like a document by Louis Gordon of "here are the set of nice pristine backing tracks I programmed for the Metamatic tour". Cos let's face it, all the drums and probably over three-quarters of the synths on these recordings are just the pre-recorded backing tracks nicely mixed down. For the trainspotter fan in me, it's interesting to note all the little variations between the original Metamatic recordings and these slightly new arrangements... sonically though, the new ones all sound like *attempts to copy* the original sounds and timbres, and they are all a little tame in comparison. On the original Metamatic, John Foxx & Gareth Thomas would be tweaking synths, cranking up EQ and reverb, etc etc, sculpting stuff to get it sounding great and the way they wanted...you just don't get the same sonic thrill when, 27 years later, someone tries to resample/reprogram/recreate all these sounds: the rough edges get smoothed off - no hiss, no distortion, no danger. Louis Gordon won't have been going "woah! this is a fantastic sound, I'll write a song with it!" - he'll be going "hmmm, well this *nearly* matches that sound on the original album, so it'll do". This is compounded by the fact that the album isn't recorded "live" with mics, but instead these backing tracks presumeably were remixed inside a PC...
For the bits are really *are* live - well, there's John's vocal of course. On the album, he never forgets the words or comes in in the wrong place it's all quite competant and not really pushing it.
Louis' rather "special" backing vocals are most definately a LOT quieter in the mix on this album than they were at the gigs.
You can spot the odd bit of synth that was getting played live here and there (dunno what Steve d'Angostino was playing on stage or on this album, as he wasn't even AT one of the gigs I attended).

Lastly, I did feel John made a mistake at the time by not getting someone to play bass guitar at the gigs. It would have been a nice real live element to the performance, and, without wanting to get too Bernard Cribbens about it, I do feel that the bass guitar is an integral part of the flavour of the original omlette.


ANYWAYS,
this review might be sounding too negative!
I guess I need to off-set everything I've said above by reminding everyone that Metamatic is one of my favourite albums of all time and the songs on this CD are generally pretty fantastic!
I guess I would say "A New Kind Of Man" is an adequate souvenir and record of the 2007 tour - viewed as a work in its own right though, I think it's a bit sanitized and lacks the grit, crackle, distortion, hiss, and mayhems of a true "live performance", where in reality things are always too loud/ too quiet/ gone wrong/ but sound better than you could ever have planned them in advance/ etc etc.... ultimately it's a subsequently studiofied idealized recreation of a tour where about 3/4's of what came out of the PA in the first place was only backing track!

Apart from In Mysterious Ways I can't think of another Foxx album that has such a divided opinion. I'm a 'yay!' man - but that doesn't mean I'm glibly ignorant of the concerns/opinions of others, I just get a great energetic glee when I stick it on, crank it up and all that sound comes in!

The problem with live albums is...they can never compete with Slade Alive or 23 Minutes in Brussels - both vying for the position of Greatest Live Albums ever

We're all entitled to our opinion and criticism. If anything, criticism can be a more interesting point for discussion rather than endless biased praise. Providing it's of course written in a way that is not intended to insult anybody.

Anybody who reads my posts will know that I seldom criticise any of John's work, so I didn't take lightly to posting what felt like 'negative' comments above. But unfortunately, it's how I feel.

I was curious to read in the booklet credits that Louis was credited for programming as part of mixing and engineering the recording. Does this mean a little musical post-production has been added? Not that its unheard of though - just about every live album has some kind of post-production!

I hadn't thought about bass guitar - maybe it would have made a difference. The bass guitar on Metamatic is one of the album's many distinctive sounds on the tracks it appears, and it gives a bit of organic texture in an otherwise cold and metallic soundscape. It would have perhaps added that extra bit of depth, I personally feel this recording is lacking.

I have always thought though, that when John recorded Metamatic, playing it live was the last thing on his mind at the time. It's a very technical album, not written for the road. I guess it's probably only been in recent years that technology has made it easier for John to play the tracks live in a sound and style that is close to the original.

I was sad to have missed that tour though, so pre-programmed or not, this CD is still a good souvenir from the show I never saw

lol I dunno, I'm not a great fan of Suicide live albums - Alan Vega always just sounds pished and doing a karaoke of himself, mixing up all the lyrics from all the different songs with not always any particular relation to what backing track Marty Rev has put on!

Maybe we need a "Best live albums" thread...